of the castle, putting
down a copy of London _Punch_ on the library table, and turning to
inspect the arrivals. "Don't tell me that that little cuss from
Balmoral Palace there has been caught with any of my ancestral gems on
him!"

"But I _will_ tell you, anyhow, George, because it's the sad and
undoubted truth," answered Holmes, as he handed over the eighth
missing bauble to His Lordship, took out a cigarette, and lit it. "The
time is now 9:15 a. m., and I herewith present you with
eight-elevenths of your stolen property, trusting to have the other
three-elevenths recovered for you before the sun goes down. As the old
Roman Emperor Titus, or somebody, used to say:

"Count that day lost whose low descending sun
Views from thy hand no diamond-capture done!"

"Eh, what? Well, by thunder, this is getting to be something fierce!"
commented the Earl as he took the cuff-button from Holmes and stowed
it away in his vest-pocket, "not the recovery of them, which I
welcome, but the melancholy fact that I have been betrayed now by no
less than, seven different people in whom I have reposed
confidence,--my own wife, my secretary, my coachman, my second cook,
my second gardener, and now by both my footmen! I wonder who is going
to be the next guilty miscreant!"

And the Earl scratched his head with perplexity.

"Who did you think took them, anyhow? The horses out in the stables,
huh?" inquired Holmes humorously. "But where is the rest of our recent
little promenade party by this time? Watson and I got lost in the
woods back there, and we lost sight of the others."

"Oh, they're up in the billiard-room, shoving the ivories around on
the green tables," answered the Earl, rising and stretching himself.

"And with their heads containing about as much ivory as the
billiard-balls, I suppose. Honestly, I never saw such a pack of gilded
loafers in my life! Don't they ever try to improve their minds! It
seems that you have some faint glimmerings of literary appreciation,
since you read London _Punch_ there, but those other ginks don't even
read _that_ much! Let's go up and inspect their playing, especially
that of Mr. Hicks," Holmes concluded, winking meaningly at me, as we
left the library and mounted the stairs.

Up on the fourth floor we entered the billiard-room where so much time
was killed, and found Lord Launcelot, Hicks, Tooter, and Thorneycroft
shooting a game of billiards, with old man Letstrayed, the so-called
p